The Finale to the 5 colors...

Warning: Wordy post! I have a lot to say. I've been in the house listening to the rain all day, getting things done, but no one to talk to, so you're getting it all!

Last week I posted this picture.


The premise seems simple enough right? Pick out a shade a green and paint my kitchen walls, at least the walls that aren't just studs... Ha! Once upon a time, I painted my bedroom a light shade of green. Eek!! It came out more Kermit than relaxing escape. I am bent and determined not to make that mistake again. Hence my demands. (in case you forgot from last time... I knew that I wanted a soft sage green that wasn't too babyish, wasn't too bright, wasn't too dark, too yellow, too blue or any of a million other criteria.)

After looking at the colors and making a snap decision, I had my choice. (Don't know how I pick colors so fast, but I always have. Somehow I just "know." Granted, that doesn't always work out so well for me (recall Kermit?) but it's how I roll. I liked all of the colors I picked, but killed Simply Sage immediately. My kitchen is DARK and I know it will be light and bright when I get the new lighting scheme in, but until then I didn't want the darkness of that color.

Ocean Foam had a fabulous color, but echoed too much of the Kermit color of my old bedroom. Silver Sage is one of the most popular furniture colors in blogdom. While I love it, it didn't have enough of a difference between the color and the cabinet color. By process of elimination, I was left with Vale Mist. I'm not sure how much eliminating I did, since that was my first choice anyway, but I at least validated it. :)

Off I went to Home Depot and ordered a gallon of the Vale Mist. If you recall, Vale Mist is originally a Benjamin Moore color, not Behr (Home Depot's paint brand) When I took my tiny (1"x2") chip back, the lady at HD asked me for the lid to the paint sample had purchased the night before. Oops. Finished the paint pot and threw the container away. I had the chip, what was the problem??? The issue? We had put some of the paint on the chip from the sample to prove the chip matched. That paint reflected the light wrong differently and would mess up the sample. What's a girl to do? Thankfully, I'm well known at Home Depot and Susan, yup, on a first name basis here, pulled up the queue from the night before and found my 4 color samples. By reading the combination of dyes, we were able to figure out which one was the un-named Vale Mist. After mixing up my color, Susan spot matched the new gallon of Vale Mist with my color chip. It looked great and off I went.

When I got home, I quickly put the paint up on the wall. The more I put up the paint color, the more upset and unhappy with the color. What the heck? When I put the color up on the wall next to my four sample colors, I discovered that it didn't match the original color. While it looked okay from a distance, it wasn't the same color. Granted, it wasn't a huge difference. Instead it was one that made you wonder if you're eyes were out of focus. Not huge, but I kept insisting that it was okay. (Basically I was trying to fool myself into liking it. Guess who wasn't fooled?)

After being mad and frustrated, Marc pulled the lid out of the trash to try and find out why I loved the color in the 1'x1' square by HATED it larger. He examined the lids, which show the color formulas. Instead of being multiples of each other, which would make sense since one was a cup and the other a gallon, we saw different dye notations. Grrrr.

After being talked back down to a rational plane, thanks Dad, I went back to Home Depot to talk with Susan. When I explained that we couldn't even make the formulas match, she realized that I wasn't more crazy than normal and something was up. With a close look, we figured out that the paint computer had tried to take the faster way out. Instead of using a combination of black and yellow, which also makes green, the computer put a shot of the blue colorant in. This changed the entire look completely and was making me batty.

After leaving with the correct color of green, I went back and completely repainted the entire surface that I had just painted a couple of hours ago. Now, I am MUCH, MUCH happier with the color. You would not believe the change in the wall and the overall look of the room with the simple difference of black and yellow versus blue.


I know it's hard to tell on a computer screen, but there is a difference in the colors going diagonally up middle of the picture.


It is so bright and happy now. I love being in it, as long as I'm facing the right way, but that's another post.

Quite a change, huh?